Whewell’s Gazette
Your weekly digest of all the best of
Internet history of science, technology and medicine
Editor in Chief: The Ghost of William Whewell
Year 2, Volume #16
Monday 02 November 2015
EDITORIAL:
Once again your weekly #histSTM links list is available on computer, tablet and smartphone screens bringing you a comprehensive selection of the histories of science, technology and medicine picked up from the far flung reaches of cyberspace over the last seven days.
Our guiding acronym #histSTM includes both of the disciplines science and technology. These two areas of human endeavour have shared an intricate and complex history over the millennia. Historians and philosophers of both disciplines have often discussed and tried to define the exact relationship between the two throughout their twisted and long history. Did the one lead or drive the other or did they develop totally separately from each other. If so was that development parallel, the one mirroring the other or did each go its own way. The answers to these questions are complex and to some extent still unresolved; the arguments ebbing and flowing from generation to generation.
About a week ago Matt Ridley reopened that debate with an article in The Wall Street Journal, The Myth of Basic Science. In this article he argued that technology was not driven by basic science but developed separately by itself; technologists finding technological solutions for technological problems when required. The conclusion he seemed to draw in his article is that governments should not finance basic scientific research but leave the technological innovation required by society to industry, who will deliver the goods when necessary.
This article provoked a cry of outrage amongst both scientists and STS people. Particularly in view of the fact that both the Conservatives in Britain and the GOP in America are seriously threatening to cut funding for basic scientific research. The first salvo for the defence was fired by Jack Stilgoe in an article in the Guardian, Countering libertarian arguments against science funding. Stilgoe was soon joined on the barricades by historian of technology Anton Howes , who unleashed a double barrelled blast on his blog Capitalism’s Cradle, Innovation vs Science and Is Innovation Autonomous?
Nature got into the fray with an article entitled Does Innovation always come from science?, in which Matt Ridley was seen to backpedal, claiming per email that he had not suggested cutting science research grants.
The final attack to date came from Derek Lowe writing on his blog In The Pipeline, Technology and Funding: Myths and Alternate Worlds. Lines have been drawn, positions have been taken and in all probability the argument will remain as inconclusive as it always has done.
Quotes of the week:
“Creationist commenter: ‘I never saw a monkey turn into a man’. Presumably, however, they were there to see Eve fashioned from Adam’s rib”. – Richard Carter (@friendsofdarwin)
“The scientific literature should exist to communicate ideas and results, not to inflate egos with impact factors and citations”. – Peter Coles (@telescoper)
“A brilliant German word: “verschlimmbessern,” which means ‘to make something worse by trying to improve it’. Happens everyday everywhere”. – Richard Smith (@Richard56)
“Stephen’s 1st law of typographical errors: typos can be neither created or destroyed; autocorrection serves only to move them around”. – Stephen Curry (@Stephen_Curry)
“UK: where fake medicine is legal under health laws, while tea is an exempted substance under drug laws”. – Frank Swain (@SciencePunk)
“Emeritus professors never die. They just lose their faculties”. – Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay)
“I bet when cuneiform was invented everyone was like, look at how no one talks anymore and just stares at their tablets”. Ekaterina Sedia (@esedia)
#histSTM Halloween
The H-Word: Babbage’s brain and Galileo’s finger: six macabre scientific relics
Concocting History: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
Early Modern Medicine: Pumpkin Power
CHF: Science and the Supernatural in the 17th Century
The Public Domain Review: The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire
Harvard Divinity School: Who are the Dead and What do They Want?
Scientific American: Cemetery Science: The Geology of Mausoleums
Smithsonian.com: The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine
Motherboard: From Zombies to Telepathy: When Science Takes on the Supernatural
Strange Remains: The morbid history of Harvard Medical School
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE:
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 26 – Far Side of the Moon
AIP: Henrietta Swope
AHF: Isotope Separation Methods
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Paula and Ludwig Bruggemann’s Interview
JHI Blog: Goodnight Moon: Kepler’s ‘Somnium’
Kepler’s ‘Somnium’ and other writings, published posthumously in 1634
The Somnium Project: Exploring Johannes Kepler’s ‘Somnium’ – the first science fiction story
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 27 – Lise Meitner
Yovisto: The Peltier Effect
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Ted Taylor’s Interview
Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog: “Mortuary Services in Civil Defense” (1956)
OUP Blog: Thinking of Kepler on the Beach
Johannes Kepler, 1610. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The Guardian: The astronomer who saved his mother from being burned as a witch
lorentz.leidenuniv.ni: Four centuries of physics dissertations from Leiden University
The Irish Times: Fred Hoyle: The brilliant man who lost the Big Bang debate
AHF: Hydrogen Bomb – 1950
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Marshall Rosenbluth’s Interview
Yovisto: The “King of Bombs” and the Craze of Cold War Nuclear Armament
Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog: The improbable William Laurence
Ptak Science Books: Glorious Gearworks, Extended – Models of the Solar System, 1817–1821
Source: Ptak Science Books
Robinince’s Blog: Psychoastronomy – a morning of awe with Brian Cox
Science Notes: Today in Science History – November 1 – Operation Ivy Mike
AIP: Hermann Bondi
Fusion: Einstein’s life was in turmoil while he developed general relativity
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
British Library: Untold lives blog: Captain Cook – Endeavour and Resolution
Just Bod: The Isles: Monsters, Mariners and Old Maps of Exploration
Anglesey by John Speed 1610 Public Domain Wikimedia
Sarah E. Bond: Mapping the Underworld: Space, Text, and Imaginary Landscapes in Antiquity
The Afternoon Map: The Most Beautiful 19th Century Arabic Map of Syria and Palestine
World Digital Library: World Map, 1566
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Smithsonian.com: How Contact Lenses Were Made in 1948
British Pathé
Thomas Morris: A case for Dr Coffin
Royal College of Physicians: A physician’s cane and the secrets it contained
Remedia: Butchers & Surgeons: Rethinking the 17th-Century English Surgeon
Atlas Obscura: The Tarantula-Possessed Woman Who Could Only be Cured by Dance
Independent: Obituary: Anne Spoerry
Advances in the History of Psychology: BPS’s The Psychologist: Psychology and the Great War, 1914–1918
The Guardian: Can you stomach it? The grim, grisly world of historical surgery – in pictures
Source: The Guardian
Origins of Science as a Visual Pursuit: Networking with the Fabrica
BHL: Eerie Anatomy: Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica
Medium: Ancient Medicine and Fetal Personhood
Thomas Morris: Glass half-empty
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 28 – Jonas Salk
Discover: A Mouldy Cantaloupe & The Dawn of Penicillin
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 29 – Baruj Benacerraf
Thomas Morris: Saliva and crow’s vomit
Wales Online: Welsh History Month: Some kind of Recorde…polymath, physician, mathematician and inventor of the equals sign
Harvard Gazette: Lessons on the brain: The Phineas Gage story
TECHNOLOGY:
The modern world in old Ladybird, pt 54. “The computer is like a gigantic cash register”
(1972)
Conciatore: Solid Water
Plus Magazine: Happy Birthday, George Boole!
Popular Mechanics: 11 Calculators That Show How Far Computing Has Come in the Past 2,000 Years
Quanta Magazine: The Physical Origin of Universal Computing
George Boole 200: Georg Boole: Timeline of Life Events
Wellcome Library Blog: An epoch in the history of typography
Simple City: Obituary Barry Cooper, 1943–2015
O Say Can You See: 6 surprising objects in the history of the Internet
Prisoner ankle bracelet and control box, about 1990
Ptak Science Books: America Attacked, 1937 – and the Unusual Architectural Response to poison Gas and the Homeless
Yovisto: Hans Grade – German Aviation Pioneer
Motherboard: Heroic Junkyard Owner Says He Saved Priceless Moon Rover From Scrap Heap
Conciatore: Witch’s Brew of Glass
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 30 – Joseph Wilson Swan
Joseph Wilson Swan
Alex Wellenstein: RIP Joan Lisa Bromberg, historian who wrote on lasers, fusion, and many things.
Georgian Gent: Hester Bateman – an extraordinary woman: a brilliant silversmith, clever in business
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
AMNH: The Horseshoe Crab
flickr: Biodiversity Heritage Library’s photos: Birds
Fistful of Cinctans: Sea Fables Explained
No Roads Barred: Tracing the footsteps of A. R. Wallace in Singapore
Forbes: In the Alps Myths about dragons may be Rooted in Geology
Yovisto: Othniel Charles Marsh and the Great Bone Wars
TrowelBlazers: Maria Antonina Czaplicka
Portrait of Marie Czaplicka and Henry Usher Hall standing with some of the objects which they collected on the Yenisei Expedition to Siberia (1914-15).
Images courtesy of the Pitt-Rivers Photo Collection.
Daily Kos: Daily Bucket: Herbaria Ode and Obituary
Embryo Project: Gavin Rylands de Beer (1899–1972)
The Dispersal of Darwin: Article: Neptunism and Transformism: Robert Jameson and other Evolutionary Theorists in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland
Science League of America: Evolution for John Doe , Part 1
AL.com: Alabama’s hidden role in Darwin’s theory of Evolution
CHEMISTRY:
Chemistry World: Speaking of chemistry
Science Notes: Today in Science History – October 30 – Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Academia: The rising of chemical kinds through epistemic iteration Hasok Chang (pdf)
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Wikipedia: WikiProject Women Scientists
Barts Health NHS: Archives catalogue
EMROC: The Transcribathon in Numbers… and Names
The Recipes Project: Transcription Communities: Experiencing a Transcribathon in a Class Setting
Medical Museion: Exhibiting Epistemic Objects
BSHS: Ayrton Prize Shortlist
AEON: Paradigms Lost
BBC News: Historical items ‘being destroyed’ by mould in Carmarthen
Book Mould
Source: National Library of Wales
History Matters: Historical Fiction and Fictional History
Conciatore: Neri and the Inquisition
HSS: Interview—Joan Vandegrift: On the Occasion of Her 30th Anniversary as Manuscript Editor to Isis
HSS: Is Membership an Anachronism?
Cilo@King’s: The Enlightenment bull market and its decolonial future
AHF: October Newsletter
The Getty Iris: A Beginner’s Guide to the Renaissance Book
A 16th-century print shop. A “puller” removes a printed sheet from the press, while a “beater” inks type. –
Source Wikimedia Commons
Absolutely Maybe: Curiosity to Scrutiny: the Early Days of Science Journalism
Wellcome Library: A month of pogonography on the blog
CNN: The historical analogs of brilliant women
ESOTERIC:
The Recipes Project: A Remedy for Witchcraft and Demonic Possession in Seventeenth-Century Ireland
An early eighteenth-century depiction of a witch conjuring up demons to do her evil work. From: Richard Boulton, A Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery and Witchcraft … (London, 2 vols, 1715-1722), vol. 1, frontispiece.
BOOK REVIEWS:
Science League of America: A New Book to Introduce Evolution to Preschoolers: Grandmother Fish
Nature: Books in Brief
British Library: Maps and views blog: British Town Maps
TLS: Truth, beauty, science and art
The Lancet: Soul medicine
Mirror: 13 fascinating and obscure science questions – complete with answers
Popular Science: Light: A Very Short Introduction – Ian Walmsley
LSE: Review of Books: A Historical Atlas of Tibet by Karl E. Ryavec
NEW BOOKS:
Schweizerbart Science Publishers: The Climates of the Geological Past/Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit
Palgrave: Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England: Ravenous Natures
Ashgate: Spaces of Global Knowledge: Exhibition, Encounter and Exchange in an Age of Empire
The Dispersal of Darwin: Making “Nature”: The History of a Scientific Journal
Ashgate: Geography, Technology and Instruments of Exploration
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Lincoln Cathedral Chapter House: The Life and Legacy of George Boole 14 September–3 November 2015
George Boole
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Boston Public Library: Women in Cartography: Five Centuries of Accomplishment 31 October 2015–27 March 2016
Before Newton: Indigenous Knowledge & the Scientific Revolution
Museum of the History of Science: Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War Runs until 31 January 2016
University of Dundee: A History of Nearly Everything Runs until 28 November 2015
The Huntarian: The Kangaroo and the Moose Runs until 21 February 2016
The Kongouro from New Holland (Kangaroo) 1772 by George Stubbs. ZBA5754
National Maritime Museum
Science Museum: Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age Runs until 13 March 2016
Museum of Science and Industry: Meet Baby Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday
CLOSING SOON: Royal Society: Seeing closer: 350 years of microscope
CLOSING SOON: Maudsley Hospital: The Maudsley at War: the story of the hospital during the Great War
THEATRE AND OPERA:
The Blue Orange Theatre: Frankenstein Runs until 8 November 2015
Noel Coward Theatre: Photograph51 Booking until 21 November 2015
Photo 51, showing x-ray diffraction pattern of DNA
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Gielgud Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Booking to 18 June 2016
FILMS AND EVENTS:
Florence Nightingale Museum: How To Die Like a Victorian 2 December 2015
1887 Victorian Mourning
Royal Museum Greenwich: Pepys Show Late: Party like it’s 1669
Motherboard: The ‘Steve Jobs’ Movie Bombed at the Box Office
Preserved Films: Fifty Million Years Ago (1925)
Framing the Face: Programme 28 November 2015
George Boole 200: Happy 200th Birthday George Boole 2 November 2015
Wellcome Collection: Recycling: London’s dirty past 5 November 2015
Wellcome Collection: Home Remedies (British Sign Language Discussion) 6 November 2015
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
Painting by Samuel Scott.
Comet Halley over the river Thames near London, England in 1759.
TELEVISION:
AHF: “Manhattan” Season 2, Episode 2: Mind Games
AHF: “Manhattan” Season 2, Episode 2: The Queen of Los Alamos
A View From the Bridge: Electrifying: Tesla on television
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Museo Galileo: Systems of celestial coordinates
AEON Video: The art of data visualisation
Youtube: The George Boole Song
Aljazeera: Pioneers of Engineering: Al Jazari and the Banu Masa
Youtube: 3.5* ‘til infinity
Vimeo: Lord Rutherford – Goettingen Lecture 14 December 1931
Harvard University Department of Physics: Recollections of Los Alamos and the Nuclear Era
Vimeo:Horrible Histories: Charles Darwin Evolution Song
Youtube: PBS Nova S33E06 Newton’s Dark Secret
RADIO:
BBC Radio 3: Free Thinking – Feature: Health Care in 18th Century Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle
Source: Wikimedia Commons
PODCASTS:
Mixcloud: The Genealogy Radio Show – Episode 8 Series 3 – George Boole *200 Genealogy project
To the best of our Knowledge: In the Newton Archives
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Calgary, Alberta: CfP: Canadian Society for the history and Philosophy of Science Annual Conference 28–30 May 2016
UCL: CfP: 10th London Ancient Science Conference 15–17 February 2016
École Normale Supérieure: Salle du Centre Cavaillès: Colloque de la Société Française d’Histoire des Sciences Humaines 5 et 6 Novembre 2015
University of Trieste: CfP: International Society for Cultural History Annual Conference 2016 18–22 July
Society for Philosophy and Technology: Call for Nominations for Society for Philosophy and Technology Board and President
University of Lancaster: CfP: Social History Society 40th Anniversary Conference 21-23 March 2016
Origins of Science as a Visual Pursuit: Notes and Records – Essay Prize – deadline 31–01-16
University of Lancaster: Symposium: Literature, Science and Medicine 30–31 March 2016
Maritime at Greenwich: ‘Britain and the Sea’ – Free to attend seminar series at Greenwich
University of Hull: Maritime Trade, Travel, and Cultural Encounter in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century 13–14 November 2015
University of Prague: CfP: 7th International Conference for the European Society for the History of Science 22–24 September 2016
Forum for Inter-American Studies: CfP: Special Issue Bodies in the Americas
The Warburg Institute: Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages 5–7 November 2015
National Maritime Museum Greenwich: CfP: From Sea to Sky: the Evolution of Air Navigation from the Ocean and Beyond 9–10 June 2016
Notches: History of Sexuality at the 2016 American Historical Association Conference
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow: Glasgow History of Medicine Group – Autumn Meetings 2015
Society for the Social History of Medicine: Conference: Practical Knowledge and Medical Practice in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures Berlin 2–3 November 2015
University of Winchester: CfP: Death, Art and Anatomy Conference 3–6 June 2016
Florence Nightingale 2020: Nightingale 2020: General Discussion Meeting on 7th December
USF Tampa Florida: CfP: Philosophy of Science Roundtable 11–13 March 2016
Birkbeck College: CfP: Birkbeck EMS’S 9th Annual Student Conference Sensing the Early Modern 20 February 2016
Birkbeck & Kings Colleges London: CfP: Conference: Life and death in early modern philosophy 14–16 April 2016
LOOKING FOR WORK:
University of Amsterdam: Professor of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage
University of Leeds: Faculty of Arts: New Postdoctoral Position: Cultures of the Book
University of Exeter: Over 100 PhD studentships available for 2016 entry
Council on Library and Information Resources: Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources
avhumboldt.de: Stellenausschreibung: Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in im Akademienvorhaben „Alexander von Humboldt auf Reisen – Wissenschaft aus der Bewegung“
Nazarbayev University: Assistant Professor – History of Medicine, Public Health, and/or Environmental History
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